Crossbow Sales Doubled Since 2010 / The Walking Dead

The TV show The Walking Dead premiered in October 2010 and included the character Daryl Dixon, who has become famous for the use of his crossbow.

The show's influence has shown dramatically in American and Canadian crossbow sales too. Crossbow sales have more than doubled between September 2010 and December 2013.

However as someone who loves crossbows I want to point out some things that annoy me when watching the show. Don't get me wrong, I love the show, but there are a number of glaring problems with the show.

#1. Daryl's crossbow is the Horton Scout HD 125 Red Dot Package. It is a children's crossbow designed for youths. It does have some advantages when fighting zombies, because it is lightweight, small, quick to reload and has great accuracy at close range. But it is horrible at longer range shots, and it doesn't have the power to puncture a human skull (although apparently zombies in The Walking Dead have mushy skulls that can be smashed in easily with feet, rocks and baseball bats). See #6. for Daryl's new crossbow he got in Season 3.

#2. Daryl uses practice arrowheads on his crossbow bolts. A true hunter would be using razor sharp broadheads. This might however just be to keep the health and safety reps happy.

#3. Daryl's crossbow limbs have been replaced with "limp limbs" so that if his crossbow was accidentally fired it would not kill anyone. Again this is to keep the health and safety reps happy.

"The problem with the crossbow though is you can’t fire an arrow on camera – it’s a digital arrow. On set, there’s sort of a dummy crossbow with loose tension and it only shoots about five feet. It looks like the arrow’s flying out but it literally just goes like this far [casts his hand a short distance]." -Norman Reedus.

#4. Daryl sometimes places his finger on the barrel of his loaded crossbow. This is a great way to lose a finger if you did that on a real crossbow. Where are the health and safety reps???

#5. During 2nd season Daryl accidentally shot himself in the back while rolling down a hill after his horse got spooked. The crossbow was facing the wrong way, there was no way he should have got shot like that, and when removing it from his back he pushed it all the way through (fletching and all). Because it was using a practice arrowhead however he should have just pulled it out the other way (less damage to himself).

#6. During season 3, the episode "Arrow on the Doorspot", Daryl gets his new crossbow which was found in an earlier episode. The new crossbow is a 380 Stryker - which was apparently picked out by the actor Normal Reedus.

The Stryker Strykezone 380 is an infinitely better crossbow than the Horton Scout. It has 160 lbs of force, is still relatively small (34 3/8" long), shoots arrows at 380 fps, weighs only 6.9 lbs. The problem with the 380 Stryker however is that it is a compound crossbow, which means it would break easily when the bowstring comes off the cams whenever whacking a zombie with it (which Daryl does frequently). If the bowstring comes off the cams you will need a bow press to restring it.

Anyone who knows crossbows knows that smacking something really hard with a compound crossbow is going to mess up your cams and cause the bowstring to come off. It just comes from knowing your crossbow.

I think Daryl would have been better off with the following crossbow:

Excalibur Crossbows "Matrix 380 Xtra" - Which has 260 lbs of force (a full 100 lbs more), is only slightly larger than the 380 Stryker (35.6" long), also shoots arrows at 380 fps, but only weighs 5.9 lbs. This means it is lighter and easier to carry - and faster to aim and shoot in a hurry. The Matrix 380 Xtra is also a recurve crossbow, which means it doesn't break as easily. You can smack it with zombies all you want and if the string ever comes off you can restring it by hand without needing a bow press.

There are literally lots of other crossbows out there Norman Reedus could have picked that would have been smaller, more powerful, and more durable for hitting zombies with. But in my opinion an Excalibur crossbow like the Matrix 380 Xtra would have been a dramatically better choice.

If you live in Toronto and want to learn how to shoot a crossbow, look no further. I am your crossbow guru!